posted at 9:21 pm on May 16, 2013 by Mary Katharine Ham

The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.

Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.

It’s the law not to abuse power at the IRS to stifle one side’s voices based on political or ideological criteria, too. And, it was the law when Ingram was head of Exempt Organizations.

Sarah Hall Ingram is a career IRS employee, having graduated from Georgetown Law in 1982 to start her career in IRS Tax Litigation. She became Commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entitles Division of the IRS in 2009. She also served as deputy commissioner in that department between 2004-2006 (to Steven Miller), where she presumably would have had the opportunity to scrutinize the determination applications of a flood of left-leaning 501(c)4s. Surely, the anti-Bush fervor and politics of an off-year election would have created a disproportionate number of liberal groups applying for status even pre-Citizens United— a situation similar to the one that allegedly justified the IRS’ improper scrutiny of conservatives in 2010— yet we haven’t heard about Ingram coming down systematically on them.

You won’t be surprised to find out that Ingram’s public remarks indicate she embraces a rather activist role for the IRS in determining whether tax-exempt organizations are doing their jobs— a philosophy she acknowledged as “somewhat controversial[ly] – at least to some” at a 2009 Georgetown University Law Center Continuing Legal Education event on non-profit governance. Ingram’s position was that the IRS should have a say in governance guidelines for non-profits and then use adoption of those guidelines as a way of eliminating groups from the universe of those who might warrant further scrutiny.

Ironically, in lecturing non-profits about “internal controls,” she touched upon the internal controls that didn’t work at the IRS:

What I am aiming at, under the rubric of “good governance,” is the development by each organization of a system of internal controls that is appropriate to the organization itself. Let me say it again. One size does not fit all. But it is fair to ask all organizations whether they have in place systems, safeguards, or controls to minimize the risk of events occurring that contravene the Code’s requirements for tax-exemption.

Asking for internal controls is not a radical idea. It happens everywhere, in every kind of organization. External auditors look for internal controls in audits of financial statements of all kinds of businesses, and write it up when they are lacking. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration looks for them when it reviews TE/GE’s programs. It is a familiar concept.

She mentioned the struggle to decide who deserved scrutiny, which according to the IRS led to the “Tea Party” and “patriot” flags as short cuts:

As a practical matter, we cannot subject every application for tax-exempt status to a painstaking, leave-no-rock-unturned review. Nor can we audit every organization’s 990 every year. Nor would you want us to do so, right? To govern is to choose, and we must choose appropriately which applications or 990s to focus most attention on.

Much of her speech was directed at governance of established non-profits well beyond the applications process in which many Tea Party groups got stalled, but she had some specific remarks about “determinations,” including new tools that offer “a more nuanced evaluation of some features of a determination letter application.”

“We may encourage applicants to incorporate principles of good governance into their organizational structures, and thereby reduce their risk of something going wrong later, but we are not requiring adherence to a particular set of rules,” she said. “We are striving to be balanced in the training. We emphasize that not all exempt organizations are alike and that one size does not fit all when it comes to governance.”

And, finally:

The federal tax law must be applied consistently across the country, and we will use both our education and outreach programs and a meaningful enforcement presence to accomplish this.

Blowback

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It’s possible that’s exactly what the Rat-Eared Ba$tard wants. Have you considered that?

slickwillie2001 on May 16, 2013 at 10:10 PM

Could be.. but I think he vastly over estimates his chances.. he is no Lincoln, who has righteousness on his side.. Lincoln wasn’t working to put chains ON people, Obama is..

I firmly believe the rank and file dems, regular moderates, their remaining conservatives.. will walk before signing on… plus the passion gap is huge,.. Our bloodiest was was fought with rifled muskets,.. another..

the carnage is unthinkable.. maybe they’ll shrink from it… we won’t be sent to gulags, and his passion to use federal agencies to punish normal Americans has GOT to wake most people up.. He may want an excuse to get a war with red State America..

but we won’t give him the excuse by starting it..

he’ll have to do that on his own.

I’ve never imagined before.. the blues are so hateful, so drunk on power.. they would think making being on the right a crime is something they would ever be allowed to get away with. The left has always been little Eichmann’s.. but never so openly.. or to actually use government as a weapon.

exactly. Message sent…and now received. I had seen the several tweets wrt obamacare…and clearly, now we see.

Obama is pretty sure he’ll be getting away with this. Basically a twofer…now that he’s re-elected. One…surprise…we got you good you tea partiers…and you anti-abortion people…Two..and oh, btw, you guys that work for my government? Well, no snitching to the AP, or anyone else

obama has always told us that if the congress didn’t do x he would implement things unilaterally. They didn’t ‘fix’ Citizens United…so he’ll fix them good

Others I’m sure heard the Dr. from Houston when he called Mark Levins show tonight.

This a short version of what he said:

A guy who used to use this Dr. had gone to an new Dr. re: PSA test on possible problem with prostrate ,,cancer,, this Dr. told him that he had new information from the GOVERMENT, that PSA test were not a good thing and that he would not do the test.

So this guy said , I’ll go ask my former Dr. what he thinks.
Gets to his former Dr. and (the guy who called Mark’s show) and this Dr. said hell ya you should take the PSA test it saves lives and is not a hazard at all.

Seems the Obama Care “experts” math people, accouants ect, “death pannels” made this choice as the radation, Cemo, hospital care ect. to treat a prostrate cancer very costly, but just saying no and let the person just get cancer, give the person morphine, and bury the person is much cheaper.

Some one get the audio and post it some where here or Ms Ham or your helpers do this.

slick, I was already fired up and now you made me go and get another drink.
He–Chicago jeezus, would suck his own crank if he could. Course, he doesn’t need to anymore since there seems to be a plethora of clean up crews out there to take care of any business he desires.

Getting pretty tired of people who should already know better (and act accordingly) suddenly discovering that every public employee union member in this country almost without exception is a left-wing nutter who dutifully hates on whomever and whatever their union and/or Demo sugar daddies tell them to hate on.

Seems the Obama Care “experts” math people, accouants ect, “death pannels” made this choice as the radation, Cemo, hospital care ect. to treat a prostrate cancer very costly, but just saying no and let the person just get cancer, give the person morphine, and bury the person is much cheaper.

Some one get the audio and post it some where here or Ms Ham or your helpers do this.

Seems very important this kind of knowing.

awk

APACHEWHOKNOWS on May 16, 2013 at 10:28 PM

Perfect sense.. as it stands..

The workers comp burea controls my medical care.. even though a new MRI reveals a signifigant worsening on the 4th of my herniated disacs, and is smashing hard into a primary nerve root.. the first doctor said no to the surgery, and refused a second opinion, apppeal was rejected..

my Doc after running his hands through his hair in frustration, said.. you may have to go outside the system, see if medicare will cover it. Over the last few weeks, the pain has worsened a lot.. I’m now.. for the first time since the bones were crushed, and having truoble walking, my legs are unstable.. and cut out without warning for several seconds..

and now..

How can I know that my medicare case isn’t filed under a bright red C?.. or the workers comp claim file?

how will we know if we aren’t being fast tracked for the “Ignore.. F**k em” file?

Obama put in our minds the very very frightening notion, you are being punished for a thought crime. All by using the IRS and EPA plus others as weaponized versions of the liberal agenda..

How can I know my care is based on medical decisions and not political ones?

The evil choice these two bit commie thug democrats and msm have made is that the commie democrats will spend the tax money to buy votes from the people in the unions, the ones on the dole and they will not spend the tax money on people they think will not vote for them. They have over taxed, over spent and they have run up the debt so high the world soon will not loan them any more cash flow , so the choice they have taken is to kill U.S. who do not vote for them off.

He–Chicago jeezus, would suck his own crank if he could. Course, he doesn’t need to anymore since there seems to be a plethora of clean up crews out there to take care of any business he desires.

arnold ziffel on May 16, 2013 at 10:29 PM

He put a quarter slot in the little door in front of his desk. Pelosi spent all day running up and down Pennsylvania Ave breaking dollar bills. Can you imagine that shiny old taught face looking up from your crotch.?

There is no way for them to “get the guns”.
There are at least 50,000,000 unregistered guns in the US.
Their first shots begin the carnage.
Look up “Bill Clinton’s Rules of Engagement” for Bosnia.
25 Million Dead
Good luck with that idea.
The 500 meter solution
III/0317

And he probably thinks he can win such a civil war because, to him, he holds all the cards and positions of power. To him, he controls the media, he controls the under-30 crowd, he controls the opposition, he controls all minorities, he controls our health care and our money, and he wants to confiscate our guns and destroy our way of life.

But what we are seeing is a man so devoted to power and control, that he is starting to implode upon himself as this drumbeat of revelations goes on… and on… and on. He wants a civil war, but his administration is coming apart at the seams in shocking fashion.

History has proven, over and over, that such control freaks with the mentality Obama possesses never have a happy ending.

-Il Douche has all the right character traits for a dictator: narcissist;bigot;amoral;anti-American;ultra-leftist;petty;vindictive;huge chip on his shoulder. These traits have been bred into him and re-enforced throughout his lifetime.
-A fascist state and tyranny of the left is clearly his goal. There is nothing that he will not do to establish this. So far, he has been able to achieve his goals peacefully, albeit deceptively, unfairly, probably unconstitutionally and likely illegally in many cases. His ability to achieve his goals thus far has been largely thanks to a generally ignorant and apathetic voting public, a very supportive and corrupt media, and a spineless and confused opposition.
-He is very likely frustrated by having any constraints at all. I have no doubt that he would like nothing more than to unburden himself of any and all constraints by whatever means necessary. If and when he reaches a road block (real or imagined), he will let loose. And this will be when he resorts to the use of violence.
-It’s all laid out for us in the history of dictatorships. And displayed in the history and observable character of Obama himself (what little history of him that there actually is, incredibly enough).
-I see a bad moon arising.

They’ve already been doing that; starting to walk back the advantages of preventative care like mammograms, saying it’s too costly for all these women to have all these early screenings – it’s not ‘necessary’, you see – so we can do with having fewer of them, you see – and if some more women get breast cancer and die, it’s still cheaper than paying for all these mammograms, you see…

Just because the Obama administration used ‘leaked’ personal tax info to attack the Koch brothers in 2010 doesn’t mean Obama knew about the on-going scandal or that the information was used for political reasons….

Just because Obama’s 2012 Presidential campaign co-chair used Romney’s personal tax info to publicly attack Romney doesn’t mean Obama knew about the on-going scandal or that the information was used for political reasons….

Just because during the 2012 campaign Harry Reid in a press conference used Romney tax data to declare Romney had not paid taxes in years then challenged him to release those documents so everyone could see doesn’t mean Obama knew about the on-going scandal or that the information was used for political reasons….

Just because Obama’s criminal tax-data stealing, Conservative/TEA Party/Jewish-targeting should-be-in-jail IRS mobster has now been hand-picked & placed in charge of Obamacare’s Tax enforcement doesn’t mean Obama knew about the on-going scandal or that the information was used for political reasons….or that this new position will be further used to intimidate & punish those same groups!

ot only is the IRS not an “independent” agency, but it appears
that the substantial bonuses received by the head of the IRS tax-exempt division when the targeting of conservative groups occurred would have been approved by the White House because they exceeded $25,000.

Asking for internal controls is not a radical idea. It happens everywhere, in every kind of organization. External auditors look for internal controls in audits of financial statements of all kinds of businesses, and write it up when they are lacking. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration looks for them when it reviews TE/GE’s programs. It is a familiar concept.

What all this spells out to me is that instead of incremental destruction of the country that the forces of the left have practiced historically lets bullet train everything. Hillary looks like a better than 50% bet to win in 2016 so why slow track socialism.
Let it all out and rapid fire everything they can get through. Obamacare and other commie/socialistc bills on the way and already in due to EO’s now become perfect vehicles for promoting socialism.
ITs the middle nearing the end of our way oflife.Its socialism warping into communism and the destructionof capitalism and our Republic.

Larry Connors, the KMOV anchor who asked Barack Obama some tough questions about his family´s vacation habits and claimed earlier this week that he might have been harassed by the IRS as a result, has been taken off the air. According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the station decided to give Connors a “few days off” while they looked into his allegations.

Face it, when Obama says he knew nothing of the malfeasance of underlings that benefited him, and then does not really punish the underlings when caught, this means that he personally instructed them to do what they did (no paper trail, of course) and naturally does not want to punish them. IMO this is the default assumption that should be made.

Sarah Hall Ingram was paid a bonus mentioned here on HotAir but hasn’t been mentioned is that the bonus amount she received had to be approved by POTUS Barack Hussein Obama. If someone knows more please let me know.

I just finished a very long post on the speech given by Sarah Hall Ingram in 2009. Everybody is looking for the architect. And she is right there. The speech came off the IRS website. It outlines everything!

Here is the link to the post. Read the speech (its linked) and tell me I’m wrong.

…But how was Ingram going to get from “A” (the concept) to “Z” the execution? She is kind enough to lay it out for us. She even titled it.

IRS Promotion of Good Governance

Somewhat controversially – at least to some – we have advanced the notion that there is a link between good governance and tax compliance. This concept seems intuitively true to many people. I certainly believe it; it does not seem like a controversial statement to me. But some have challenged this association of good governance and good compliance – not by pointing out cases in which well governed organizations nonetheless seriously violated the Code and put their tax-exempt status at risk – but simply by saying the point has not been proved.

These critics often note that effective governance arises from intangibles – the dedication and diligence of responsible officers and board members – rather than from the adoption of

numerous rules and procedures. These, in their view, can pile up on top of each other to such an extent that they prevent good governance rather than promote it . Knowing who is right in this discussion is not easy. We have set out to collect some information on the point. We are going to start asking agents, at the end of each examination, to fill out a check sheet about certain of the examined organization’s governance practices and internal controls. The check sheet is intended to identify instances of noncompliance found during the exam, and also to gather information about whether the organization had, and used, any internal controls. For each instance of noncompliance found – excessive compensation, political intervention, inurement, private benefit, material diversion of assets – the agent should ask, who made the decision to do it or to allow it? Was there a policy in place concerning the transition or activity, for example, and if so, was it followed? ….

At what point to we say gotcha?

Worse she goes on in greater detail explaining that is the IRS job to monitor your behavior in case you stray from being a person of good governance.